At 11:27 AM -0500 6/3/04, Mary Baker wrote:
questions that are asked and never answered, answers or conversations that pop up without any visible history. I think a lot of stuff is taken offline. Maybe good, maybe bad, but I'd prefer that if a question is asked on the forum, as long as the answer isn't personal, post the answer to the forum.
Once again, Mary touches upon a important point.
VERY OFTEN, questions in this forum are answered offline. As she points out, this can be good and can be bad. Participants should know, that this is an excellent place to ask questions. I generally get good answers when I post a "factual" question here, but as Mary points out, this often takes place offline.
From talking to people, I know that there are primarily three reasons that they like to reply in private.
#1) The person answering the question does
not want to use up one of their 2 posts
per day. #2) The person answering the question does not
want to get drawn into a public debate or
draw attention to themselves. Often the case
with city or district council staff.#3) The answer is speculative or personal.
I would encourage folks, when possible, to reply to questions in public - especially questions that are very factual. I would also encourage questioners to share, anonymously or with the permission of the author, interesting private replies that they get to their questions (much like Mary Baker did today).
But, I would also like to acknowledge and respect the reasons that some people have for keeping their replies private.
Best wishes,
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